Francisco José Cuesta-Valero

Francisco José Cuesta-Valero

Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow / Remote Sensing Department (UFZ)

Department Remote Sensing, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ

I’m an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Department of Remote Sensing of the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ. My research consists in exploring the possibilities offered by remote sensing data to estimate ground surface fluxes. Remote sensing observations from satellite instruments provide near global coverage of the land surface at high spatial and temporal resolutions, potentially complementing the information provided by micrometeorological observatories and subsurface temperature profiles. My goal is to expand our understanding of the least known term of the surface energy balance to enhance the estimates of important phenomena occurring near the land surface, such as extreme temperature events, soil respiration, and permafrost stability. As part of my research, I also work with reanalysis products and global climate simulations from the CMIP projects, assembling a large collection of heteropgeneous datasets. Therefore, I am also interested in data analysis techniques such as machine learning, downscaling, and data assimilation.

Interests

  • Remote sensing
  • Surface energy fluxes
  • Extreme events
  • Earth heat inventory / Earth energy imbalance
  • Borehole climatology
  • Climate simulations / climate modelling
  • Data analysis

Education

  • Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences, 2016-2021

    Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada

  • M.Sc. in Earth Sciences, 2014-2016

    St. Francis Xavier University, Canada

  • B.Sc. in Physics, 2009-2013

    University of Murcia, Spain

Publications (13)